Living Bridge

These poems are my prayer “to create the totality of my loves into a living bridge for my progeny to cross.” The richness of these western lands, peoples and their culture are reflected each day in cliffs towering above our new home. Our senses are sharpened by their strangely beautiful spires and by the fragrances of our local flora, by ravens’ and quails’ cries, and by coyotes’ singing. The Navajo heritage is expressed in the woven testaments of their lives, in their rugs created from the natural colored wools of their sheep and with dye colors of desert plants. It is also in the native gems, the garnets, malachite, and jaspers they fashion into silver rings and necklaces. But above all, it is the love and care they have for all their children in their songs and prayers. The values their medicine men and women teach during healing meetings have allowed the Navajos to survive in our present culture. I also recognize that this country of red rocks has called out to people from around the world and resonates with something innate and beautiful in all our hearts. So I dedicate these poems as a small offering of tribute to all of us who have had the good fortune to come here.